LEFT: Monsignor Joseph Cassidy gave much of his life to building the Church in rural Georgia.
RIGHT: In the 1930s, Monsignor Cassidy traveled the state in his “trailer chapel.”

He Hitched the Church
to His Chrysler

Known as the “trailer priest,” Monsignor Cassidy spent a substantial part of his life evangelizing in poor and isolated communities in rural Georgia. In the 1930s, he traveled throughout the state with his “trailer chapel,” which had “Queen of the Apostles Motor Chapel” written on each of its sides. The “chapel” was hitched to Monsignor Cassidy’s Chrysler coupe as he traveled through red clay roads and pine forests and “tried to be a good salesman.” As a result of his work, parishes were created and churches were built in small towns in Georgia – places where Catholicism had previously been unknown.

After several years of evangelizing, Monsignor Cassidy returned to parish work. Then, at the age of 69, he embarked on a new ministry as chaplain of a large mental health facility in Milledgeville. In his later years, Monsignor Cassidy said, “I prayed that my life would be my most eloquent sermon.” The many people and places he influenced in Georgia would agree that it was.